Step Three: Remove as many of
the star-shaped elements as you can. First, select the brush
tool, then change the brush size to about 30 or 40. Then
carefully black out the star-shaped elements. Stay away from the
very center of the image, if you touch that you'll destroy it. In
my example here I've been somewhat lazy and just dropped a big fat
black circle in the center of each star. If you're meticulous
you'll get better results.

Also, you only need to do the work on one half of the image, since it
is reflected around the center.